This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at ¿Robot or not robot?

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The Spanish inyectadores continue betting on the "Yes"

Robot or not robot?

Drafting PU15/04/2005

Talk about the Asian competition in the industry and in particular in the area of the injection of plastics is already very repetitive. But why not it is true that all companies are looking for how to optimize the production as a way to survive in an environment of maximum competition. Some suppliers of injectors tend increasingly to provide their machines with the integrated robot and anthropomorphic robots are also present in certain types of applications in the plastics industry.

Sepro manipulator operating in a Spanish client.

The robot W721 Compact S3 of Wittmann, presented at the K 2004.

Spanish plastics industry continues the trend towards a greater use of robots in plants of injection. This situation contrasts with the "fight" for the price and is not uncommon to find in the available offer robots with a lower price but with more features, and improvements to accelerate the cycles. All this to meet, for example, the requirement of the transformers of plastic to reduce his time at the change of molds, using controls easy to use robots.

Linear robots are facing now, in addition, the increasing appearance in the market of industrial robots, Kuka and ABB at the head of the latter. When that is required is a rapid removal of the mold, the linear had to the anthropomorphic in speed, though the latter are more likely once out of the machine. For example, in a fuel transfer of 1,500 tons, at a cost estimated by time machine of 85 euros (without amortization of the mold or Automation), working in three shifts (5,500 hours per year) and with a cast of a cavity, the favored reduction of a cycle on four seconds for the automatic extraction of the pieceYou can generate annual savings of 31,000 euros, according to estimates by Wittmann.

When you purchase a robot transformer of plastics is difficult not to compare with each other, because, for example, the different axes and career lengths, bit uniform specifications and limited industry standards.

The route that a robot can do, his career, is one of the elements to keep in mind when you go to buy a robot. One or the other is to acquire depending on the size of the piece, the location of the point of injection and the dimensions of the machine. We must take into account the depth of the piece, the distance determined by the height of the machine and the height of desired fall and if the robot loose piece on one side of the machine or behind it.

Since then, it must also take into account the weight of the piece, as well as that of the hand grip of the robot. But the couple is also linked to the weight and is very important to compare the applied torque, the of the piece and the hand grip, with the couple that the robot can hold.

As for speed, often used as an argument, value times are presented in terms of peaks of speed, but this information is not valid if the acceleration is unknown. In other words, a robot may have a high peak of speed but little acceleration. The useful information is to know how long a robot can traverse a specific distance.

There is more to do in what emphasize some of the leading manufacturers of robots to realize that, increasingly, ease of handling is a value upward. The screen of the control and easy to connect the control with the machines, are elements to be taken into account.

As well as other equipment used in industry, reliability, security, and issues relating to jobs, the installation of mechanical limiters, elements of security in the area of the vertical drop and others are also important.

And finally, the factor price, often decisive. Rather than looking at the price as an isolated figure, however, should devote time to analyze the savings that can be obtained by reducing the downtime or increasing the cycle time.